Labor council says 88,000 jobs to be generated by Q4

SURVEYAbout a third of more than 3,000 firms polled said they planned to hire new staff, citing increased demand and expansion as reasons

By Shelley Huang / STAFF REPORTER

The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday said that by the fourth quarter this year, a net 88,000 new jobs would have been created by businesses, with growing demand as the principal driver.

The council last month conducted its quarterly poll of more than 3,000 firms with 30 or more employees to ask them about their recruitment or layoff plans through the end of next month.

While more than half of the businesses said they were not planning to adjust their workforce, about 31 percent said they had plans to increase their staff numbers, said Cheng Wen-yuan (鄭文淵), director of the council's statistics department.

An aggregate 99,500 workers are expected to be hired by the end of next month, while 11,100 workers may be laid off, resulting in a net increase of 88,400 jobs, Cheng said.

The council said that increased demand for goods and services amid the gradual economic recovery, growing consumer confidence and a boom partly attributed to growing numbers of tourists from China have contributed to companies' plans to expand their capital investments and workforce.

However, compared with last quarter's report, the surge in labor demand in the travel and hospitality sectors slightly cooled because of the passing of the peak travel season.

The manufacturing sector was the biggest contributor, with 47,905 new jobs, followed by the wholesale and retail sector (14,505), corporate support services (5,435) and shipping and logistics (4,296).

The type of workers most in demand were unskilled or manual laborers at 23,618, followed by technicians and equipment operators (20,672), clerks and assistant staff (13,813) and specialists (13,304).